My father is a long haired, opened minded - organic consumer of both the edible and the smokable. He has introduced me to so many things that too many people won't ever learn or experience, especially at my age. From the time that my mind was pure, although I could not concieve of the full greatness of nature, never the less I was taken everywhere my dad tread. Hanging from the pack on his back, I had been to the ocean, the deserts, the Teton mountains, and since I have grown up in the hocking hills most of my life, I have definitely spent a great deal of time in the woods. The experiences, although I may not have been able to grasp the full wrath of them at the time, I believe have molded me to who I am today.

My dad has always stood up for what he believes is right, regardless of the situation which was sometimes in the most public of places, and many times embarrassing for me when I was in the midst of my adolescence. He once saw a parked car toss a pile of trash out of their window into a mcdonald's parking lot. I was always scared when I knew he was about to do something drastic, not knowing what that might be, but despite my plea for him to stay in the car, I watched as he picked the trash off of the ground and throw it back into their window, in which they rolled up their window, with their trash in their lap. Little things like this make me glad to be alive. He's also an artist, a wonderful multi talented musician, in which he plays the harmonica, his preference being the blues, and bluegrass.

Now to come back to the original point of what I was trying to make. I see so many people my age who disgust me because they call themselves hippies. This may just be my personal opinion, but to me, the length of your hair, your preference of clothes, music, drugs or no drugs, a hippie is not a fashion, and yet it's sad to say that so many people today have no concept of what it's like to find yourself, and stand strong with your own personal beliefs, even if that means you are standing by yourself. Like the word love, which is an undefinable involuntary emotion, that promotes passionate acts of kindness, a true hippie can not be defined, but is what he or she is because of love and passion.